Fall in rice export spells trouble

NALGONDA: A downtrend in boiled rice exports to Kerala and neighbouring states has spelt trouble for farmers in Nalgonda district forcing them to struggle for godown space for their paddy produce. Though the government has started troubleshooting by constructing new godowns, there seems to be no immediate respite as the new godowns will be ready only by the next Rabi season.
Every year about 6 lakh metric tonne of boiled rice is exported to Kerala from Nalgonda district. But the exports have decreased by 50 percent over the last two years. As a result, a large quantity of rice is lying in the godowns leaving only 35,000 tonne of empty space for storage.In Nalgonda district, the government and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) have godowns of 3.3 lakh tonne capacity and private godowns of two lakh tonne capacity. But currently, there is only 35,000 tonne of empty storage space available in government godowns as most of the farmers and millers have not moved their stocks resulting in scarcity of space. Though the marketing department is promising to create more godown space by next year, officials are expressing helplessness to tide over the crisis for the current season.